Posted on 05/20/2005 2:38:37 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Oligarchy - “The rule by the few. A government in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt and selfish purposes… a group exercising such control… an organization under oligarchic control”. - Merriam Webster Dictionary.
My good friend Marvin, who lives in New York City , coined this new word “oiligarchy”, which, he suggests, is highly pertinent to define the current Venezuelan political regime. He is very right. The Chavez regime is an oligarchy highly lubricated by oil, hence, an “oiligarchy”.
The political regime of Hugo Chavez has received, in six years, between 120 and 130 billion dollars of oil income, this is about $800 of yearly oil income per capita. This income amounts to one fourth of the total income per capita of Venezuelans ($3400) and is generated by a very small fraction of the population, no more than some 40,000 employees. This illustrates how underdeveloped our country really is and how dependent on oil income.
Such a dependency on oil income means that, unless the regime uses the oil income very wisely and with the utmost care, the country cannot move forward. In fact, even with utmost care the oil income is no longer the answer to the increasing needs of 25 million Venezuelans. The fact is that oil income per capita is now about half of what it was 30 years ago, in 1974 ($1540), in spite of the current high oil prices and mostly due to our increasing population. Our dependence on oil is now greater than ever before since our country is close to last in rankings related to competitiveness and modernization. We are country #55 out of 62 countries in the Index of Globalization produced by Foreign Policy magazine and A.T. Kearney (Foreign Policy, May-June 2005). This is an index that evaluates economic, human resources, technological and political parameters, and includes components such as trade, Internet use and foreign direct investment. We are below countries like Nigeria, Tunisia and Peru and way below Panama (number 24 in the ranking).
Oil income, even if used at optimum efficiency, is already insufficient to move the country forward. Venezuela has an income per capita which is less than half of the income per capita of Barbados and only half that of St. Kitts and Nevis or of Trinidad Tobago. Developed countries like Norway have a per capita income of $44,000, more than 10 times that of Venezuela.
The little income we have should, therefore, be used wisely but…. what happens? Oil income has fallen into the hands of the revolutionary “oiligarchy”! The degree of waste and corruption is so high that much of the oil money never reaches the Venezuelan Central Bank but stays in the pockets of the regime, which uses it without transparency. The first requisite in a democracy is accountability but this regime does not practice it.
As a result of waste and corruption, poverty levels have actually increased from 70% to 80% during the tenure of Chavez, according to their own official figures. At the same time, however, the standard of living of the new “oiligarchy” is very high: a $65 million aircraft for the President, $3000 suits, $2000 watches, $70,000 sport vehicles, the most expensive suites in the best hotels in the world, an opulence which represents a far cry from the very modest ways of life the members of the new “oiligarchy” used to have, when they were low ranking military officers, clerical staff, unsuccessful poets, small town lawyers or bus drivers.
The official “revolutionary” rhetoric against the old oligarchy and corruption now sounds empty and insincere, voiced by people who have become masters at living well, at the expense of the misery of the population. They go by the streets of Caracas at high speed, in their shiny chauffeur-driven limousines, electric windows rolled up, indifferent to the squalor which surrounds them, not noticing the street children smoking pot or the Indian women with babies hanging from their waists begging at stop signs, while adolescents try to juggle some balls in the air or clean car windows in the pursuit of a few coins from the new “oiligarchs”.
So, what else is new? The more we see the pompous and new rich attitude of the “oiligarchs”, the more nostalgic we feel about the old democrats like Medina, Betancourt, Gallegos and Leoni.These leaders were essentially unassuming, mixed freely with the people and lived and died inside the limits of a dignified middle class. They had no dreams of world leadership but felt they had to apply their best efforts to improve the lot of their people. And improve they did. You can look it up. Even as late as 1975 our income per capita was close to that of Japan and Spain, while today it is eleven and five times lower.
40 years ago we were a small nation, with a growing middle class in possession of a clearly progressive attitude. Today we are a backward society, with a growing problem of poverty, ignorance and over-dependence in the welfare state, suffering under the rule of an “oiligarchy” determined to take us to the lowest levels of quality of life.
Gustavo Coronel is a 28 years oil industry veteran, a member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), author of several books. At the present Coronel is an advisor on the opinion and editorial content of Petroleumworld en Español. Petroleumworld not necessarily share these views
Don't buy gas at Citco. Citco is owned by the Venusuelen govt. All the money you spend there goes to the govt of Chavez.
Chavez is a tyrant who uses oil money to coddle dictators, fund social programs and support communist causes.
Burp for later
Apparently. anyone with the means is leaving Venezuela and coming to Florida, and that will make things even worse, there.
As long as the elite can cheaply buy mobs of the poor to riot against the middle class, the elite will retain power
Venezuela news Ping!
Chavez is a tyrant who uses oil money to coddle dictators, fund social programs and support communist causes.
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I don not have an issue with the social programs in a naiton so poverty stricken but having seen the pictues of him with every dictators left on this planet he makes me feel ill. Venezeula (and many other Latin american countries) goes from dictator to dictator and the poor always lose out.
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